Mad Minutes and Vietnam Months: A Soldier's Memoir

by Micheal Clodfelter

This book is an attempt to describe the intensity of the mad minutes (in the bush language of grunts, describes the general discharge of all weapons along a defense perimeter at a pre-designated time to discourage a potential enemy attack) and the agonizing search for the release that those moments of blind violence provided. For those who, like myself, started the search with the light of glory in our eyes and ended it dimmed by a dark jungle and our darker deeds, mad minutes became part of a mad experience in a mad war that carried us beyond glory into a territory from which none of us really returned.

Genres: History, Military Fiction

253 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1988

Reviews

[Todd · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book at a thrift store and was intrigued but honestly didn't know what to expect, since I have disliked some soldier memoirs in the past. But I was pleasantly surprised, it was a good memoir that was well written. Some metaphors he used to describe his experiences were a bit overboard, and it could've been 50 pages shorter, but all in all a solid Vietnam memoir.